Product Review: Blackbeard’s Revenge for Oak & Iron

By Mitch Reed

One of most interesting box sets for Oak & Iron is the Blackbeard’s Revenge pack which features some unique historical ships for your collection. The box comes with two ships, the frigate Queen Anne’s Revenge and the sloop Revenge which were the ships of Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet respectively. Both of these ships are a must for a player who wants to play the pirate faction in the game since they are only available for that faction.

The Queen Anne’s Revenge was the flagship of the pirate Edward Teach who was better known by the name Blackbeard. The Queen Anne’s Revenge was originally a French ship that Blackbeard captured in 1717 and used the ship for raiding merchantmen and the blockade of Charleston South Carolina. Blackbeard’s streak of luck ran out in 1718 when the ship ran aground off of North Carolina coast and abandoned.

The Revenge was the ship that Blackbeard used to capture the Queen Anne’s Revenge and once he moved into the new ship, he returned the Revenge to its owner, the famous pirate Stede Bonnet. The Revenge was also an example of a ship that was built and commissioned as a pirate ship as opposed to converting a captured ship into becoming a pirate raider.

In the world of Oak & Iron both ships add a lot of capability to your pirate squadron. The Queen Anne’s Revenge is faster and much better armed than its counterpart in the game which is the Petite Frigate. While the ship costs three more points that the Petite Frigate, it can take more crew fatigue since it comes with the “additional crew” upgrade, however it gets none of the other options that the stock frigate has.

The Revenge also costs three more points, but you get a better broadside and crew rating than a regular sloop. The ship also has the “Fast” trait but the trade off is the lack of upgrades that the Sloop has. Players will see right away for the extra three points for each ship you are getting much more in return for the points and when paired together these two ships form a deadly squadron that you never want to tangle with unless you have overwhelming numbers to subdue these ships.

The other card that comes in box set is Captain Stede Bonnet upgrade, who comes with the “Bold” and “Persistent” special rules and can be taken with an Admiral card like Blackbeard.

At the 50-point Patrol level I use these ships as the core of my pirate fleet. When the Queen Anne’s Revenge is the flagship for Blackbeard the ship can remove fatigue from other ships in its squadron if they are in pistol range, so it is a no-brainer to take this combination.

To fill out my list I will add a small ship such as a corvette or brigantine with some upgrades. What this gives me is a fast fleet that gives me good firepower with their broadsides and when I can close in, I can use my superior crew to undertake a boarding action and capture my opponent’s ships. In a larger point game, I still use the Revenge and the Queen Anne’s Revenge as my fleet’s core and surround it with a bunch of light ships to swarm any of my opponent’s ships of the line that can dish out firepower that I cannot match ship for ship.

The other reason I love this box set is that since only the Pirate faction can use these ships it allowed me to give them a really cool and pirate themed paint job that may look out of place in another faction. With their red and black sails, I will always know where these ships are on my game table.
Aside from the required core box set, the Blackbeard’s Revenge box is the one I recommend that all Oak & Iron player pick up. The flavor and abilities these ships add to the game makes them some of my most cherished and used ships in my collection.

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